_To record the woes of authors and to discourse_ de libris fatalibus_seems deliberately to court the displeasure of that fickle mistress whopresides over the destinies of writers and their works. Fortune awaits theaspiring scribe with many wiles, and oft treats him sorely. If she enrichany, it is but to make them subject of her sport. If she raise others, itis but to pleasure herself with their ruins. What she adorned butyesterday is to-day her pastime, and if we now permit her to adorn andcrown us, we must to-morrow suffer her to crush and tear us to pieces.To-day her sovereign power is limited: she can but let loose a host ofangry critics upon us; she can but scoff at us, take away our literaryreputation, and turn away the eyes of a public as fickle as herself fromour pages. Surely that were hard enough! Can Fortune pluck a more gallingdart from her quiver, and dip the point in more envenomed bitterness? Yes,those whose hard lot is here recorded have suffered more terrible woundsthan these. They have lost liberty, and even life, on account of theirworks. The cherished offspring of their brains have, like unnaturalchildren, turned against their parents, causing them to be put to death._

_Fools many of them--nay, it is surprising how many of this illustriousfamily have peopled the world, and they can boast of many authors' nameswhich figure on their genealogical tree--men who might have lived happy,contented, and useful lives were it not for their insane _cacoethesscribendi_. And hereby they show their folly. If only they had beencontent to write plain and ordinary commonplaces which every one believed,and which caused every honest fellow who had a grain of sense in his headto exclaim, "How true that is!" all would have been well. But they mustneeds write something original, something different from other men'sthoughts; and immediately the censors and critics began to spy out heresy,or laxity of morals, and the fools were dealt with according to theirfolly. There used to be special houses of correction in those days, mad-houses built upon an approved system, for the special treatment of casesof this kind; mediaeval dungeons, an occasional application of the rack,and other gentle instruments of torture of an inventive age, werewonderfully efficacious in curing a man of his folly. Nor was there anyspecial limit to the time during which the treatment lasted. And in caseof a dangerous fit of folly, there were always a few faggots ready, or asharpened axe, to put a finishing stroke to other and more gentleremedies._

_One species of folly was especially effective in procuring the attentionof the critics of the day, and that was satirical writing. They could nottolerate that style--no, not for a moment; and many an author has had hiscap and bells, aye, and the lining too, severed from the rest of hismotley, simply because he would go and play with Satyrs instead of keepingcompany with plain and simple folk._

_Far separated from the crowd of fools, save only in their fate, werethose who amid the mists of error saw the light of Truth, and strove totell men of her graces and perfections. The vulgar crowd heeded not themessage, and despised the messengers. They could see no difference betweenthe philosopher's robe and the fool's motley, the Saint's glory andSatan's hoof. But with eager eyes and beating hearts the toilers afterTruth worked on._

_"How many with sad faith have sought her? How many with crossed hands have sighed for her? How many with brave hearts fought for her, At life's dear peril wrought for her, So loved her that they died for her, Tasting the raptured fleetness Of her Divine completeness?"_

_In honour of these scholars of an elder age, little understood by theirfellows, who caused them to suffer for the sake of the Truth they loved,we doff our caps, whether they jingle or not, as you please; and if thouthinkest, good reader, that 'twere folly to lose a life for such a cause,the bells will match the rest of thy garb. The learning, too, of thecensors and critics was often indeed remarkable. They condemned arecondite treatise on Trigonometry, because they imagined it containedheretical opinions concerning the doctrine of the Trinity; and anotherwork which was devoted to the study of Insects was prohibited, becausethey concluded that it was a secret attack upon the Jesuits. Well mightpoor Galileo exclaim, "And are these then my judges?" Stossius, who wrotea goodly book with the title "Concordia rationis et fidei," which was dulyhonoured by being burnt at Berlin, thus addresses his slaughteredoffspring, and speculates on the reason of its condemnation: "Ad librum aministerio damnatum._

_But think not, O Book-lover, that I am about to record all the race offools who have made themselves uncomfortable through their insane love ofwriting, nor count all the books which have become instruments ofaccusation against their authors. That library would be a large one whichcontained all such volumes. I may only write to thee of some of them now,and if thou shouldest require more, some other time I may tell thee ofthem. Perhaps in a corner of thy book-shelves thou wilt collect a store ofFatal Books, many of which are rare and hard to find. Know, too, that Ihave derived some of the titles of works herein recorded from a singularand rare work of M. John Christianus Klotz, published in Latin at Leipsic,in the year 1751. To these I have added many others. The BiographicalDictionary of Bayle is a mine from which I have often quarried, anddiscovered there many rare treasures. Our own learned literary historian,Mr. Isaac Disraeli, has recorded the woes of many of our English writersin his book entitled "The Calamities of Authors" and also in his"Curiosities of Literature." From these works I have derived someinformation. There is a work by Menkenius, "Analecta de CalamitateLiteratorum"; another by Pierius Valerianus, "De InfelicitateLiteratorum"; another by Spizelius, "Infelix Literatus"; and last but notleast Peignot's "Dictionnaire Critique, Litteraire et Bibliographique, desLivres condamnes au Feu" which will furnish thee with further informationconcerning the woes of authors, if thine appetite be not already sated._

_And if there be any of Folly's crowd who read this book--of those, Imean, who work and toil by light of midnight lamp, weaving from theirbrains page upon page of lore and learning, wearing their lives out, allfor the sake of an ungrateful public, which cares little for their labourand scarcely stops to thank the toiler for his pains--if there be any ofyou who read these pages, it will be as pleasant to you to feel safe andfree from the stern critics' modes of former days, as it is to watch thestorms and tempests of the sea from the secure retreat of your studychair._

_And if at any time a cross-grained reviewer should treat thy cherishedbook with scorn, and presume to ridicule thy sentiment and scoff at thystyle (which Heaven forfend!), console thyself that thou livest inpeaceable and enlightened times, and needest fear that no greater evil canbefall thee on account of thy folly in writing than the lash of his satireand the bitterness of his caustic pen. After the manner of thy race thouwilt tempt Fortune again. May'st thou proceed and prosper!_ Vale.

_I desire to express my many thanks to the Rev. Arthur Carr, M.A., lateFellow of Oriel College, Oxford, for his kind assistance in revising theproofs of this work. It was my intention to dedicate this book to Mr. JohnWalter, but alas! his death has deprived it of that distinction. It isonly possible now to inscribe to the memory of him whom England mourns theresults of some literary labour in which he was pleased to take a kindlyinterest._

Since the knowledge of Truth is the sovereign good of human nature, it isnatural that in every age she should have many seekers, and those whoventured in quest of her in the dark days of ignorance and superstitionamidst the mists and tempests of the sixteenth century often ran counterto the opinions of dominant parties, and fell into the hands of foes whoknew no pity. Inasmuch as Theology and Religion are the highest of allstudies--the _aroma scientiarum_--they have attracted the most powerfulminds and the subtlest intellects to their elucidation; no other subjectshave excited men's minds and aroused their passions as these have done; onaccount of their unspeakable importance, no other subjects have kindledsuch heat and strife, or proved themselves more fatal to many of theauthors who wrote concerning them. In an evil hour persecutions wereresorted to to force consciences, Roman Catholics burning and torturingProtestants, and the latter retaliating and using the same weapons; surelythis was, as Bacon wrote, "to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of thelikeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set, out ofthe bark of a Christian Church, a flag of a bark of pirates andassassins."

The historian then will not be surprised to find that by far the largernumber of Fatal Books deal with these subjects of Theology and Religion,and many of them belong to the stormy period of the Reformation. They metwith severe critics in the merciless Inquisition, and sad was the fate ofa luckless author who found himself opposed to the opinions of that dreadtribunal. There was no appeal from its decisions, and if a taint ofheresy, or of what it was pleased to call heresy, was detected in anybook, the doom of its author was sealed, and the ingenuity of the age waswell-nigh exhausted in devising methods for administering the largestamount of torture before death ended his woes.

_Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum._

Liberty of conscience was a thing unknown in the sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies; and while we prize that liberty as a priceless possession, wecan but admire the constancy and courage of those who lived in less happydays. We are not concerned now in condemning or defending their opinionsor their beliefs, but we may at least praise their boldness and mourntheir fate.

The first author we record whose works proved fatal to him was MichaelMolinos, a Spanish theologian born in 1627, a pious and devout man whoresided at Rome and acted as confessor. He published in 1675 _TheSpiritual Manual_, which was translated from Italian into Latin, andtogether with a treatise on _The Daily Communion_ was printed with thistitle: _A Spiritual Manual, releasing the soul and leading it along theinterior way to the acquiring the perfection of contemplation and the richtreasure of internal peace_. In the preface Molinos writes: "Mysticaltheology is not a science of the imagination, but of feelings; we do notunderstand it by study, but we receive it from heaven. Therefore in thislittle work I have received far greater assistance from the infinitegoodness of God, who has deigned to inspire me, than from the thoughtswhich the reading of books has suggested to me." The object of the work isto teach that the pious mind must possess quietude in order to attain toany spiritual progress, and that for this purpose it must be abstractedfrom visible objects and thus rendered susceptible of heavenly influence.This work received the approval of the Archbishop of the kingdom ofCalabria, and many other theologians of the Church. It won for its authorthe favour of Cardinal Estraeus and also of Pope Innocent XI. It wasexamined by the Inquisition at the instigation of the Jesuits, and passedthat trying ordeal unscathed. But the book raised up many powerfuladversaries against its author, who did not scruple to charge Molinos withJudaism, Mohammedanism, and many other "isms," but without any avail,until at length they approached the confessor of the King of Naples, andobtained an order addressed to Cardinal Estraeus for the furtherexamination of the book. The Cardinal preferred the favour of the king tohis private friendship. Molinos was tried in 1685, and two years later wasconducted in his priestly robes to the temple of Minerva, where he wasbound, and holding in his hand a wax taper was compelled to renouncesixty-eight articles which the Inquisition decreed were deduced from hisbook. He was afterwards doomed to perpetual imprisonment. On his way tothe prison he encountered one of his opponents and exclaimed, "Farewell,my father; we shall meet again on the day of judgment, and then it will bemanifest on which side, on yours or mine, the Truth shall stand." Foreleven long years Molinos languished in the dungeons of the Inquisition,where he died in 1696. His work was translated into French and appeared ina _Recueil de pieces sur le Quietisme_, published in Amsterdam 1688.Molinos has been considered the leader and founder of the Quietism of theseventeenth century. The monks of Mount Athos in the fourteenth, theMolinosists, Madame Guyon, Fenelon, and others in the seventeenth century,all belonged to that contemplative company of Christians who thought thatthe highest state of perfection consisted in the repose and completeinaction of the soul, that life ought to be one of entire passivecontemplation, and that good works and active industry were only fittingfor those who were toiling in a lower sphere and had not attained to thehigher regions of spiritual mysticism. Thus the '[Greek: Aesuchastai]' onMount Athos contemplated their nose or their navel, and called the effectof their meditations "the divine light," and Molinos pined in his dungeon,and left his works to be castigated by the renowned Bossuet. The pious,devout, and learned Spanish divine was worthy of a better fate, andperhaps a little more quietism and a little less restlessness would not beamiss in our busy nineteenth century.

The noblest prey ever captured by those keen hunters, the Inquisitors, wasBartholomew Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, in 1558, one of the richestand most powerful prelates in Christendom. He enjoyed the favour of hissovereign Philip II. of Spain, whom he accompanied to England, and helpedto burn our English Protestants. Unfortunately in an evil hour he turnedto authorship, and published a catechism under this title: _Commentariossobre el Catequismo Cristiano divididos en quatro partes las qualescontienen fodo loque professamor en el sancto baptismo, como se vera en laplana seguiente dirigidos al serenissimo Roy de Espana_ (Antwerp). Onaccount of this work he was accused of Lutheranism, and his capturearranged by his enemies. At midnight, after the Archbishop had retired torest, a knock was heard at the door of the chamber. "Who calls?" asked theattendant friar. "Open to the Holy Office," was the answer. Immediatelythe door flew open, for none dared resist that terrible summons, andRamirez, the Inquisitor-General of Toledo, entered. The Archbishop raisedhimself in his bed, and demanded the reason of the intrusion. An order forhis arrest was produced, and he was speedily conveyed to the dungeons ofthe Inquisition at Valladolid. For seven long years he lingered there, andwas then summoned to Rome in 1566 by Pius V. and imprisoned for six yearsin the Castle of St. Angelo. The successor of Pope Pius V., Gregory XIII.,at length pronounced him guilty of false doctrine. His catechism wascondemned; he was compelled to abjure sixteen propositions, and besidesother penances he was confined for five years in a monastery. Broken downby his eighteen years' imprisonment and by the hardships he had undergone,he died sixteen days after his cruel sentence had been pronounced.[Footnote: Cf. _The Church of Spain_, by Canon Meyrick. (National ChurchesSeries.)] On his deathbed he solemnly declared that he had never seriouslyoffended with regard to the Faith. The people were very indignant againsthis persecutors, and on the day of his funeral all the shops were closedas on a great festival. His body was honoured as that of a saint. Hiscaptors doubtless regretted his death, inasmuch as the Pope is said tohave received a thousand gold pieces each month for sparing his life, andPhilip appropriated the revenues of his see for his own charitablepurposes, which happened at that time to be suppression of heresy in theNetherlands by the usual means of rack and fire and burying alive helplessvictims.

A very fatal book was one entitled _Opus de anno primitivo ab exordiamundi, ad annum Julianum accommodato, et de sacrorum temporum ratione.Augustae-Vindelicorum_, 1621, _in folio magno_. It is a work of JeromeWecchiettus, a Florentine doctor of theology. The Inquisition attacked andcondemned the book to the flames, and its author to perpetualimprisonment. Being absent from Rome he was comparatively safe, butsurprised the whole world by voluntarily submitting himself to hispersecutors, and surrendering himself to prison. This extraordinaryhumility disarmed his foes, but it did not soften much the hearts of theInquisitors, who permitted him to end his days in the cell. The causes ofthe condemnation of the work are not very evident. One idea is that in hiswork the author pretended to prove that Christ did not eat the passoverduring the last year of His life; and another states that he did notsufficiently honour the memory of Louis of Bavaria, and thus aroused theanger of the strong supporters of that ancient house.

The first English author whose woes we record is Samuel Clarke, who wasborn at Norwich in 1675, and was for some time chaplain to the bishop ofthat see. He was very intimate with the scientific men of his time, andespecially with Newton. In 1704 he published his Boyle Lectures, _ATreatise on the Being and Attributes of God, and on Natural and RevealedReligion_, which found its way into other lands, a translation beingpublished in Amsterdam in 1721. Our author became chaplain to Queen Anneand Rector of St. James's. He was a profoundly learned and devout student,and obtained a European renown as a true Christian philosopher. Incontroversy he encountered foemen worthy of his steel, such as Spinosa,Hobbes, Dodwell, Collins, Leibnitz, and others. But in 1712 he published_The Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity_, which was declared to be opposedto the Christian belief and tainted with Arianism. The attention ofParliament was called to the book; the arguments were disputed by EdwardWells, John Edwards, and William Sommer; and Clarke was deprived of hisoffices. The charge of heterodoxy was certainly never proved against him;he did good service in trying to stem the flood of rationalism prevalentin his time, and his work was carried on by Bishop Butler. Hiscorrespondence with Leibnitz on Time, Space, Necessity, and Liberty waspublished in 1717, and his editions of Caesar and Homer were no meancontributions to the study of classical literature.

In the sixteenth century there lived in Hungary one Francis David, a manlearned in the arts and languages, but his inconstancy and fickleness ofmind led him into diverse errors, and brought about his destruction. Heleft the Church, and first embraced Calvinism; then he fled into the campof the Semi-Judaising party, publishing a book _De Christo non invocando_,which was answered by Faustus Socinus, the founder of Socinianism. ThePrince of Transylvania, Christopher Bathori, condemned David as an impiousinnovator and preacher of strange doctrines, and cast him into prison,where he died in 1579. There is extant a letter of David to the Churchesof Poland concerning the millennium of Christ.

Our next author was a victim to the same inconstancy of mind which provedso fatal to Francis David, but sordid reasons and the love of gain withoutdoubt influenced his conduct and produced his fickleness of faith. Antoniode Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, was a shining light of the RomanChurch at the end of the sixteenth century. He was born in 1566, andeducated by the Jesuits. He was learned in history and in science, and wasthe first to discover the cause of the rainbow, his explanation beingadopted and perfected by Descartes. The Jesuits obtained for him theProfessorship of Mathematics at Padua, and of Logic and Rhetoric atBrescia. After his ordination he became a popular preacher and wasconsecrated Bishop of Segni, and afterwards Archbishop of Spalatro inDalmatia. He took a leading part in the controversy between the Republicof Venice and the Pope, and after the reconciliation between the twoparties was obliged by the Pope to pay an annual pension of five hundredcrowns out of the revenues of his see to the Bishop of Segni. This highlyincensed the avaricious prelate, who immediately began to look out forhimself a more lucrative piece of preferment. He applied to Sir DudleyCarleton, the English Ambassador at Venice, to know whether he would bereceived into the Church of England, as the abuses and corruptions of theChurch of Rome prevented him from remaining any longer in her communion.

King James I. heartily approved of his proposal, and gave him a mosthonourable reception, both in the Universities and at Court. All theEnglish bishops agreed to contribute towards his maintenance. Fuller says:"It is incredible what flocking of people there was to behold this oldarchbishop now a new convert; prelates and peers presented him with giftsof high valuation." Other writers of the period describe him as "old andcorpulent," but of a "comely presence"; irascible and pretentious, giftedwith an unlimited assurance and plenty of ready wit in writing andspeaking; of a "jeering temper," and of a most grasping avarice. He wasridiculed on the stage in Middleton's play, _The Game of Chess_, as the"Fat Bishop." "He was well named De Dominis in the plural," saysCrakanthorp, "for he could serve two masters, or twenty, if they paid himwages."

Our author now proceeded to finish his great work, which he published in1617 in three large folios--_De Republica Ecclesiastica_, of which theoriginal still exists among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library atOxford. "He exclaims," says Fuller, "'in reading, meditation, and writing,I am almost pined away,' but his fat cheeks did confute his false tonguein that expression." In this book he shows that the authority of theBishop of Rome can easily be disproved from Holy Scripture, that itreceives no support from the judgment of history and antiquity, that theearly bishops of that see had no precedence over other bishops, nor werein the least able to control those of other countries. He declares thatthe inequality in power amongst the Apostles is a human invention, notfounded on the Gospels; that in the Holy Eucharist the priest does notoffer the sacrifice of Christ, but only the commemoration of thatsacrifice; that the Church has no coercive power, that John Huss waswrongfully condemned at the Council of Constance; that the Holy Spirit waspromised to the whole Church, and not only to bishops and priests; thatthe papacy is a fiction invented by men; and he states many otherpropositions which must have been somewhat distasteful to the Pope and hisfollowers.

James rewarded De Dominis by conferring on him the Mastership of the Savoyand the Deanery of Windsor, and he further increased his wealth bypresenting himself to the rich living of West Ilsley, in Berkshire.

In an unfortunate moment he insulted Count Gondomar, the SpanishAmbassador, who determined to be revenged, and persuaded the Pope to sendthe most flattering offers if he would return to his former faith. PopeGregory XV., a relative of De Dominis, had just ascended the Papal throne.The bait took. De Dominis, discontented with the _non multum supraquadringentas libras annuas_ which he received in England, and piningafter the _duodecim millia Coronatorum_ promised by the Pope, resolved toleave our shores. James was indignant. Bishop Hall tried to dissuade himfrom his purpose. "Tell me, by the Immortal God, what it is that cansnatch you from us so suddenly, after a delay of so many years, and driveyou to Rome? Has our race appeared to you inhospitable, or have we shownfavour to your virtues less than you hoped? You cannot plead that this isthe cause of your departure, upon whom a most kind sovereign has bestowedsuch ample gifts and conferred such rich offices." The Archbishop wasquestioned by the Bishops of London and Durham, by order of the king, withregard to his intentions, and commanded to leave the country within twentydays. He was known to have amassed a large sum of money during his sojournin England, and his trunks were seized, and found to contain over L1,600.De Dominis fled to Brussels, and there wrote his _Consilium Reditus_,giving his reasons for rejoining the Roman Church, and expecting daily hispromised reward--a cardinal's hat and a rich bishopric. His hopes weredoomed to be disappointed. For a short time he received a pension fromGregory XV., but this was discontinued by Urban VIII., and our authorbecame dissatisfied and imprudently talked of again changing his faith. Hewas heard to exclaim at supper on one occasion, "That no Catholic hadanswered his book, _De Republica Ecclesiastica_, but that he himself wasable to deal with them." The Inquisition seized him, and he was conveyedto the Castle of St. Angelo, where he soon died, as some writers assert,by poison. His body and his books were burned by the executioner, and theashes thrown into the Tiber. Dr. Fitzgerald, Rector of the English Collegeat Rome, thus describes him: "He was a malcontent knave when he fled fromus, a railing knave when he lived with you, and a motley particolouredknave now he is come again." He had undoubtedly great learning and skillin controversy, [Footnote: His opinion with regard to the jurisdiction ofthe Metropolitan over suffragan bishops was referred to in the recenttrial of the Bishop of Lincoln.] but avarice was his master, and he wasrewarded according to his deserts. [Footnote: Cf. article by the Rev. C.W. Penny in the _Journal of the Berks Archaeological Society_, on Antoniode Dominis.]

The lonely fortress of Mont-Saint-Michel saw the end of a bittercontroversialist, Noel Bede, who died there in 1587. He wrote _NatalisBedoe, doctoris Theol. Parisiensis annotationum in Erasmi paraphrases NoviTestamenti, et Jacobi Fabri Stapulensis commentarios in Evangelistas,Paulique Epistolas, Libri III., Parisiis_, 1526, _in-fol_. This workabounds in vehement criticisms and violent declamations. Erasmus did notfail to reply to his calumniator, and detected no less than eighty-onefalsehoods, two hundred and six calumnies, and forty-seven blasphemies.Bede continued to denounce Erasmus as a heretic, and in a sermon beforethe court reproached the king for not punishing such unbelievers withsufficient rigour. The author was twice banished, and finally wascompelled to make a public retractation in the Church of Notre Dame, forhaving spoken against the king and the truth, and to be exiled to Mont-Saint-Michel.

Translators of the Bible fared not well at the hands of those who wereunwilling that the Scriptures should be studied in the vulgar tongue bythe lay-folk, and foremost among that brave band of self-sacrificingscholars stands William Tyndale. His life is well known, and needs norecapitulation; but it may be noted that his books, rather than his workof translating the Scriptures, brought about his destruction. Hisimportant work called _The Practice of Prelates_, which was mainlydirected against the corruptions of the hierarchy, unfortunately containeda vehement condemnation of the divorce of Catherine of Arragon by HenryVIII. This deeply offended the monarch at the very time that negotiationswere in progress for the return of Tyndale to his native shores fromAntwerp, and he declared that he was "very joyous to have his realmdestitute of such a person." The _Practice of Prelates_ was partly writtenin answer to the _Dialogue_ of Sir Thomas More, who was commissioned tocombat the "pernicious and heretical" works of the "impious enemies of theChurch." Tyndale wrote also a bitter _Answer_ to the _Dialogue_, and thisdrew forth from More his abusive and scurrilous _Confutation_, which didlittle credit to the writer or to the cause for which he contendedTyndale's longest controversial work, entitled _The Obedience of aChristian Man, and how Christian Rulers ought to govern_, although itstirred up much hostility against its author, very favourably impressedKing Henry, who delighted in it, and declared that "the book was for himand for all kings to read." The story of the burning of the translation ofthe New Testament at St. Paul's Cross by Bishop Tunstall, of the samebishop's purchase of a "heap of the books" for the same charitablepurpose, thereby furnishing Tyndale with means for providing anotheredition and for printing his translation of the Pentateuch, all this is athrice-told tale. Nor need we record the account of the conspiracy whichsealed his doom. For sixteen months he was imprisoned in the Castle ofVilvoord, and we find him petitioning for some warm clothing and "for acandle in the evening, for it is wearisome to sit alone in the dark," andabove all for his Hebrew Bible, Grammar, and Dictionary, that he mightspend his time in that study. After a long dreary mockery of a trial onOctober 16th, 1536, he was chained to a stake with faggots piled aroundhim. "As he stood firmly among the wood, with the executioner ready tostrangle him, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and cried with a ferventzeal and loud voice, 'Lord, open the King of England's eyes!' and then,yielding himself to the executioner, he was strangled, and his bodyimmediately consumed." That same year, by the King's command, the firstedition of the Bible was published in London. If Tyndale had confinedhimself to the great work of translating the Scriptures, and had abandonedcontroversy and his _Practice of Prelates_, his fate might have beendifferent; but, as Mr. Froude says, "he was a man whose history has beenlost in his work, and whose epitaph is the Reformation."

Another translator, whose fate was not so tragic, was the learned AriasMontanus, a Spaniard, who produced at the command of King Philip II. thefamous Polyglot Bible printed at Antwerp in nine tomes. He possessed awonderful knowledge of several languages, and devoted immense labour tohis great work. But in spite of the royal approval of his work his bookmet with much opposition on the part of the extreme Roman party, whoaccused him to the Pope and made many false charges against him. The Popewas enraged against Montanus, and he was obliged to go to Rome to pleadhis cause. He at length obtained pardon from the Pope, and escaped the"chariots of fire" which bore the souls of so many martyred saints toheaven. It is a curious irony of fate that Montanus, who was one of thechief compilers of the _Index Expurgatorius_, should live to see his ownwork placed on the condemned list.

The story of the martyrdom of John Huss is well known, and need not behere related, but perhaps the books which caused his death are not sofrequently studied or their titles remembered. His most important work washis _De Ecclesia_, in which he maintained the rigid doctrine ofpredestination, denied to the Pope the title of Head of the Church,declaring that the Pope is the vicar of St. Peter, if he walk in hissteps; but if he give in to covetousness, he is the vicar of JudasIscariot. He reprobates the flattery which was commonly used towards thePope, and denounces the luxury and other corruptions of the cardinals.Besides this treatise we have many others--_Adv. Indulgentias, DeErectione Crucis_, etc. He wrote in Latin, Bohemian, and German, andrecently his Bohemian writings have been edited by K. J. Erben, Prague(1865). His plain speaking aroused the fury of his adversaries, and heknew his danger. On one occasion he made a strange challenge, offering tomaintain his opinions in disputation, and consenting to be burnt if hisconclusions were proved to be wrong, on condition that his opponentsshould submit to the same fate in case of defeat. But as they would onlysacrifice one out of the company of his foes, he declared that theconditions were unequal, and the challenge was abandoned. When at last hewas granted a safe conduct by the Emperor Sigismund, and trusted himselfto the Council of Constance, his fate was sealed. Even in his noisomeprison his pen (when he could procure one) was not idle, and Huss composedduring his confinement several tracts on religious subjects. At length hisdegradation was completed; a tall paper cap painted with hideous figuresof devils was placed upon his head, and a bishop said to him, "We committhy body to the secular arm, and thy soul to the devil." "And I," repliedthe martyr, "commit it to my most merciful Lord, Jesus Christ." When onhis way to execution he saw his Fatal Books being burnt amidst an excitedcrowd, he smiled and remarked on the folly of people burning what theycould not read.

Another translator of the Bible was Antonio Bruccioli, who published inVenice, in 1546, the following edition of the Holy Scriptures: _Biblia enlengua toscana, cioe, i tutti i santi libri del vecchio y Novo Testamento,in lengua toscana, dalla hebraica verita, e fonte greco, con commento daAntonio Bruccioli_. Although a Roman Catholic, he favoured Protestantviews, and did not show much love for either the monks or priests. Hisbold comments attracted the attention of the Inquisition, who condemnedhis work and placed it on the Index. The author was condemned to death byhanging, but happily for him powerful friends interceded, and hispunishment was modified to a two years' banishment. He died in 1555, whenProtestant burnings were in vogue in England.

Enzinas, the author of a Spanish translation of the New Testament entitled_El Nuevo Testamento de N. Redemptor y Salvador J. C. traduzido en lenguacastellana (En Amberes, 1543, in-8)_, dedicated his work to Charles V. Butit caused him to be imprisoned fifteen months. Happily he discovered ameans of escape from his dungeon, and retired to safe quarters at Geneva.In France he adopted the _nom-de-plume_ of Dryander, and his _History ofthe Netherlands and of Religion in Spain_ forms part of the Protestantmartyrology published in Germany. The author's brother, John Dryander, wasburnt at Rome in 1545.

The Jansenist Louis Le Maistre, better known under the name of de Sacy,was imprisoned in the Bastille on account of his opinions and also for hisFrench translation of the New Testament, published at Mons, in 1667, andentitled _Le Nouveau Testament de N.S.J.C., traduit en francais selonl'edition Vulgate, avec les differences du grec_ (2 vols., in-12). Thisfamous work, known by the name of the New Testament of Mons, has beencondemned by many popes, bishops, and other authorities. Louis Le Maistrewas assisted in the work by his brother, and the translation was improvedby Arnaud and Nicole. Pope Clement IX. described the work as "rash,pernicious, different from the Vulgate, and containing many stumbling-blocks for the unlearned." When confined in the Bastille, Le Maistre andhis friend Nicolas Fontaine wrote _Les Figures de la Bible_, which work isusually attributed to the latter author. According to the Jesuits, thePort-Royalists are represented under the figure of David, theirantagonists as Saul. Louis XIV. appears as Rehoboam, Jezebel, Ahasuerus,and Darius. But these fanciful interpretations are probably due to theimagination of the critics.

The fate of Gaspar Peucer enforces the truth of the old adage that "ashoemaker ought to stick to his last," and shows that those men courtadversity who meddle with matters outside their profession. Peucer was adoctor of medicine of the academy of Wuertemberg, and wrote several workson astronomy, medicine, and history. He was a friend of Melanchthon, andbecame imbued with Calvinistic notions, which he manifested in hispublication of the works of the Reformer. On account of this he wasimprisoned eleven years. By the favour of the Elector he was at lengthreleased, and wrote a _History of his Captivity_ (Zurich, 1605). A curiouswork, entitled _A Treatise on Divination_, was published by Peucer atWuertemberg, written in Latin, in 1552. He ranks among the most learned menof Germany of the sixteenth century.

There were many Fatal Books in Holland during the famous controversybetween the Arminians and the Gomarists, which ended in the famous Synodof Dort, and for vehemence, bigotry, and intolerance is as remarkable asany which can be found in ecclesiastical history. The learned historianGrotius was imprisoned, but he wrote no book which caused his misfortune.Indeed his books were instrumental in his escape, which was effected bymeans of his large box containing books brought into the prison by hiswife. When removed from the prison it contained, not the books, but theauthor. Vorstius, the successor of Arminius as Professor of Theology atLeyden, was not so happy. His book, _Tractatus de Deo, seu de natura etattributis Dei_ (Steinfurti, 1610, in-4), aroused the vengeance of theGomarists, and brought about the loss of his professorship and hisbanishment from Holland; but any injustice might have been expected fromthat extraordinary Synod, where theology was mystified, religiondisgraced, and Christianity outraged. [Footnote: Cf. _Church in theNetherlands_, by P.H. Ditchfield, chap. xvii.]

Few books have created such a sensation in the world or aroused soprolonged a controversy as _Les Reflexions Morales_ of Pasquier Quesnel,published in 1671. The full title of the work is _Le Nouveau Testament enFrancais, avec des reflexions morales sur chaque verset_ (Paris, 1671, ivol., in-12), _pour les quatre Evangiles seulement_. Praslard was thepublisher. In 1693 and 1694 appeared another edition, containing his_reflexions morales_, not only on the Gospels, but also on the Acts andthe Epistles. Many subsequent editions have appeared. Not only France, butthe whole of the Western Church was agitated by it, and its far-reachingeffects have hardly yet passed away. It caused its author a long period ofincarceration; it became a weapon in the hands of the Jesuits to hurl atthe Jansenists, and the Papal Bull pronounced against it was the cause ofthe separation of a large body of the faithful from the communion of theRoman Church. Its author was born at Paris in 1634, and was educated inthe congregation of the Oratory. Appointed director of its school inParis, he wrote _Pensees Chretiennes sur les quatre Evangiles_, which wasthe germ of his later work. In 1684 he fled to Brussels, because he felthimself unable to sign a formulary decreed by the Oratorians on account ofits acceptance of some of the principles of Descartes to which Arnauld andthe famous writers of the school of Port-Royal always offered vehementopposition.

A second edition of _Reflexions Morales_ appeared in 1694 with theapproval of De Noailles, then Bishop of Chalons, afterwards Archbishop ofParis. But a few years later, by the intrigues of the Jesuits, and by theorder of Philip V., Quesnel was imprisoned at Mechlin. In 1703 he escapedand retired to Amsterdam, where he died in 1719. But the history of thebook did not close with the author's death. It was condemned by PopeClement XI. in 1708 as infected with Jansenism. Four years later anassembly of five cardinals and eleven theologians sat in judgment upon it;their deliberations lasted eighteen months, and the result of theirlabours was the famous Bull _Unigenitus_, which condemned one hundred andone propositions taken from the writings of Quesnel.

The unreasonableness and injustice of this condemnation may be understoodfrom the following extracts:--

Proposition 50.--"It is in vain that we cry to God, My _Father_, if it isnot the Spirit of love that cries."

This is described as "pernicious in practice, and offensive to piousears."

Proposition 54.--"It is love alone that speaks to God; it is love alonethat God hears."

This, according to the cardinals, "is scandalous, temerarious, impious,and erroneous."

The acceptance of the Bull was a great stumbling-block to many churchmen.Louis XIV. forced it upon the French bishops, who were entertained at asumptuous banquet given by the Archbishop of Strasbourg and by a largemajority decided against the Quesnelites. It is unnecessary to follow thehistory of this controversy further. France was long agitated by it, andthe Church of Holland was and is excommunicate from Rome mainly on accountof its refusal to accept the Bull _Unigenitus_, which was called forth byand so unjustly condemned Quesnel's famous book.

In connection with the history of this Bull we may mention the work of oneof its most vehement opponents, Pierre Francois le Courayer, of the orderof the canons regular of St. Augustine, who wrote a book of great interestto English churchmen, entitled _Dissertation sur la validite desOrdinations Anglicanes_ (Bruxelles, 1723, 2 vols., in-12). This book wascondemned and its author excommunicated. He retired to the shelter of theChurch whose right of succession he so ably defended, and died in Londonin 1776.

Few authors have received greater honour for their works, or enduredseverer calamities on account of them, than the famous Florentine preacherSavonarola. Endowed with a marvellous eloquence, imbued with a spirit ofenthusiastic patriotism and intense devotion, he inveighed against thevices of the age, the worldliness of the clergy, the selfish ease of thewealthy while the poor were crying for bread in want and sickness. Thegood citizens of Florence believed that he was an angel from heaven, thathe had miraculous powers, could speak with God and foretell the future;and while the women of Florence cast their jewels and finery into theflames of the "bonfire of vanities," the men, inspired by the preacher'sdreams of freedom, were preparing to throw off the yoke of the Medicis andproclaim a grand Florentine Republic. The revolution was accomplished, andfor three years Savonarola was practically the ruler of the new state. Hisworks were: _Commentatiuncula de Mahumetanorum secta; Triumphus crucis,sive de fidei Christianae veritate_ in four books (1497), de _Simplicitatevitae Christianae_ in five books, and _Compendium Revelationis_ (1495),and many volumes of his discourses, some of which are the rarest treasuresof incunabula.

[Footnote: At Venice in the library of Leo S. Olschki I have metwith some of these volumes, the rarest of which is entitled:--

The text commences "CREDITE IN Dno Deo uestro & securi eritis." In thecell of Savonarola at the Monastery of St. Mark is preserved a MS. volumeof the famous preacher. The writing is very small, and must have taxed theskill of the printers in deciphering it.]

The austerity of his teaching excited some hostility against him,especially on the part of the monks who did not belong to his order--thatof the Dominicans. He had poured such bitter invective both in his booksand in his sermons upon the vices of the Popes and the Cardinals, thatthey too formed a powerful party in league against him. In addition thefriends of the Medicis resented the overthrow of their power, and thepopulace, ever fickle in their affections, required fresh wonders andsigns to keep them faithful to their leader. The opportunity of hisenemies came when Charles VIII. of France retired from Florence. Theyaccused Savonarola of all kinds of wickedness. He was cast into prison,tortured, and condemned to death as a heretic. In what his heresyconsisted it were hard to discover. It was true that when his poor,shattered, sensitive frame was being torn and rent by the cruel engines oftorture, he assented to many things which his persecutors strove to wringfrom him. The real cause of his destruction was not so much the charges ofheresy which were brought against his books and sermons, as the fact thathe was a person inconvenient to Pope Alexander VI. On the 23rd of May,1498, he met his doom in the great piazza at Florence where in happierdays he had held the multitude spell-bound by his burning eloquence. Theresentence was passed upon him. Stripped of his black Dominican robe andlong white tunic, he was bound to a gibbet, strangled by a halter, and hisdead body consumed by fire, his ashes being thrown into the river Arno.Such was the miserable end of the great Florentine preacher, whose strangeand complex character has been so often discussed, and whose remarkablecareer has furnished a theme for poets and romance-writers, and forms thebasis of one of the most powerful novels of modern times.

Not only were the Inquisitors and the Cardinals guilty of intolerance andthe stern rigour of persecution, but the Reformers themselves, when theyhad the power, refrained not from torturing and burning those who did notaccept their own particular belief. This they did not merely out of aspirit of revenge conceived against those who had formerly condemned theirfathers and brethren to the stake, but sometimes we see instances ofReformers slaughtering Reformers, because the victims did not hold quitethe same tenets as those who were in power. Poor Michael Servetus sharedas hard a fate at the hands of Calvin, as ever "heretic" did at the handsof the Catholics; and this fate was entirely caused by his writings. Thisauthor was born in Spain, at Villaneuva in Arragon, in 1509. At an earlyage he went to Africa to learn Arabic, and on his return settled inFrance, studying law at Toulouse, and medicine at Lyons and Paris.

But the principles of the Reformed religion attracted him; he studied theScriptures in their original languages, and the writings of the fathersand schoolmen. Unhappily his perverse and self-reliant spirit led him intogrievous errors with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. In vain thegentle Reformer Oecolampadius at Basle reasoned with him. He must needsdisseminate his opinions in a book entitled _De Trinitatis Erroribus_,which has handed the name of Servetus down to posterity as the author oferrors opposed to the tenets of the Christian Faith. Bucer declared thathe deserved the most shameful death on account of the ideas set forth inthis work. In his next work, _Dialogues on the Trinity_ and _A Treatise onthe Kingdom of Christ_, Servetus somewhat modified his views, and declaredthat his former reasonings were merely "those of a boy speaking to boys";but he blamed rather the arrangement of his book, than retracted theopinions he had expressed.

After sojourning some time in Italy, he returned to France in 1534, andsettled at Lyons, where he published a new and highly esteemed edition ofthe Geography of Ptolemy, inscribing himself as Michael Villanovanus, fromthe name of his birthplace. His former works had been published under thename of Reves, formed by the transposition of the letters of his familyname. In Paris he studied medicine, and began to set forth novel opinionswhich led him into conflict with other members of the faculty. In one ofhis treatises he is said to have suggested the theory of the circulationof the blood. In 1540 he went to Vienne and published anonymously hiswell-known work _De Restitutione Christianismi_. This book, when itsauthorship became known, brought upon him the charge of heresy, and he wascast into prison. Powerful friends enabled him to escape, and his enemieswere obliged to content themselves with burning his effigy and severalcopies of his books in the market-place at Vienne. Servetus determined tofly to Naples, but was obliged to pass through Geneva, where at theinstigation of the great Reformer Calvin he was seized and cast intoprison. It is unnecessary to follow the course of Servetus' ill-fatedhistory, the bitter hostility of Calvin, the delays, the trials andcolloquies. At length he was condemned, and the religious world shudderedat the thought of seeing the pile lighted by a champion of the Reformationand religious freedom. Loud and awful shrieks were heard in the prisonwhen the tidings of his sentence were conveyed to Servetus. Soon the fatalstaff was broken over his head as a sign of his condemnation, and on theChampel Hill, outside the gates of Geneva, the last tragic scene tookplace. With his brow adorned with a crown of straw sprinkled withbrimstone, his Fatal Books at his side, chained to a low seat, andsurrounded by piles of blazing faggots, the newness and moisture of whichadded greatly to his torture, in piteous agony Servetus breathed his last,a sad spectacle of crime wrought in religion's name, a fearful example ofhow great woes an author may bring upon himself by his arrogance and self-sufficiency. The errors of Servetus were deplorable, but the vindictivecruelty of his foes creates sympathy for the victim of their rage, andCalvin's memory is ever stained by his base conduct to his former friend.

The name of Sebastian Edzardt is not so well known. He was educated atWuertemberg, and when Frederick I. of Prussia conceived the desire ofuniting the various reformed bodies with the Lutherans, he published awork _De causis et natura unionis_, and a treatise _Ad CalvanianorumPelagianisinum_. In this book he charged the Calvinists with the Pelagianheresy--a charge which they were accustomed to bring against theLutherans. It was written partly against a book of John Winckler, _ArcanumRegium de conciliandis religionibus subditorum diffidentibus_, publishedin 1703 in support of the King's designs. In the same year he published_Impietas cohortis fanatica, expropriis Speneri, Rechenbergii, Petersenii,Thomasii, Arnoldi, Schutzii, Boehmeri, aliorumque fanaticorum scriptis,plusquam apodictis argumentis, ostensa. Hamburgi, Koenig, 1703, in-4_.This work was suppressed by order of the senate of Hamburg. Frederick wasenraged at Edzardt's opposition to his plans, ordered his first book to beburnt, and forbade any one to reply to it. Nor was our author moresuccessful in his other work, _Kurtzer Entwurff der Einigkeit derEvangelisch-Lutherischen und Reformirten im Grunde des Glaubens: vondieser Vereinigung eigentlicher Natur und Beschaffenheit_, wherein hetreated of various systems of theology. This too was publicly burnt, butof the fate of its author I have no further particulars.

The last of the great schoolmen, William of Ockham, called the "InvincibleDoctor," suffered imprisonment and exile on account of his works. He wasborn at Ockham in Surrey in 1280, and, after studying at Oxford, went tothe University of Paris. He lived in stirring times, and took a prominentpart in the great controversies which agitated the fourteenth century.Pope John XXII. ruled at Avignon, a shameless truckster in ecclesiasticalmerchandise, a violent oppressor of his subjects, yet obliged by force ofcircumstances to be a mere subject of the King of France. The EmperorLudwig IV. ruled in Germany in spite of the excommunication pronouncedagainst him by the Pope. Many voices were raised in support of Louisdenouncing the assumptions of the occupant of the Papal See. Marcilius ofPadua wrote his famous _Defensor Pacis_ against Papal pretensions, and ourauthor, William of Ockham, issued his still more famous _Defence ofPoverty_, which startled the whole of Christendom by its vigorousonslaught on the vices of the Papacy and the assumptions of Pope John. Thelatter ordered two bishops to examine the work, and the "InvincibleDoctor" was cast into prison at Avignon. He would certainly have beenslain, had he not contrived to effect his escape, and taken refuge at thecourt of the German emperor, to whom he addressed the words, "_Tu medefendas gladio, ego te defendam calamo_." There he lived and wrote,condemned by the Pope, disowned by his order, the Franciscans, threateneddaily with sentences of heresy, deprivation, and imprisonment; but forthem he cared not, and fearlessly pursued his course, becoming theacknowledged leader of the reforming tendencies of the age, and preparingthe material for that blaze of light which astonished the world in thesixteenth century. His works have never been collected, and are veryscarce, being preserved with great care in some of the chief libraries ofEurope. The scholastic philosophy of the fourteenth century, the disputesbetween the Nominalists and the Realists, in which he took the part of theformer, the principle that "entities are not to be multiplied except bynecessity," or the "hypostatic existence of abstractions," have ceased tocreate any very keen interest in the minds of readers. But how bitterlythe war of words was waged in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries! Andit was not only a war of words; one who witnessed the contests wrote that"when the contending parties had exhausted their stock of verbal abuse,they often came to blows; and it was not uncommon in their quarrels about_universals_, to see the combatants engaged not only with their fists, butwith clubs and swords, so that many have been wounded and some killed."These controversies have passed away, upon which, says John of Salisbury,more time had been wasted than the Caesars had employed in makingthemselves masters of the world; and it is unnecessary here to revivethem. Ockham's principal works are: _Quaestiones et decisiones in quatuorlibros sententiarum cum centilogio theologico_ (Lyons, 1495), [Footnote: Ihave met with a copy of this work amongst the incunabula in the possessionof M. Olschki, of Venice. The printer's name is John Trechsel, who isdescribed as _vir hujus artis solertissimus_.] _Summa logicae_ (Paris,1483), _Quodlibeta_ (Paris, 1487), _Super potestate summi pontifia_(1496). He died at Munich in 1343.

The _Introductio ad Theologiam_ of the famous Abelard, another schoolman,was fatal to him. Abelard's name is more generally known on account of thegolden haze of romance which surrounded him and the fair Heloise; andtheir loving letters have been often read and mourned over by thousandswho have never heard of his theological writings. At one time the famousCanon of Notre Dame at Paris had an enthusiastic following; thousandsflocked to his lectures from every country; his popularity was enormous.He combated the abuses of the age and the degeneracy of some of theclergy, and astonished and enraged many by the boldness of his speech andthe novelty of his opinions. His views with regard to the doctrine of theTrinity expressed in his _Introductio_ (Traite de la Trinite) were madethe subject of a charge against him, and certainly they cannot be easilydistinguished from Sabellianism. The qualities or attributes of theGodhead, power, wisdom, goodness, were stated to be the three Persons. TheSon of God was not incarnate to deliver us, but only to instruct us by Hisdiscourses and example. Jesus Christ, God and Man, is not one of thePersons in the Trinity, and a man is not properly called God. He did notdescend into hell. Such were some of the errors with which Abelard wasreproached. Whether they were actually contained in his writings, it isnot so evident. We have only fragments of Abelard's writings to judgefrom, which have been collected by M. Cousin--_Ouvrages ineditsd'Abelard_--and therefore cannot speak with certain knowledge of hisopinions. At least they were judged to be blasphemous and heretical by theCouncil of Soissons, when he was condemned to commit his books to theflames and to retire to the Convent of St. Denys. Some years later, whenhe had recovered from the horrible mutilation to which he had beensubjected by the uncle of Heloise, and his mind had acquired its usualstrength, we find him at Paris, again attracting crowds by his brilliantlectures, and pouring forth books, and alas! another fatal one, _Sic etNon_, [Footnote: Petri Abelardi _Sic et Non_ (Marburgi, SumptibusLibrariae; Academy Elwertianae, 1851). The best edition of Abelard'sletters is _P. Abaelardi et Heloisae conjugis ejus Epistolae, ab erroribuspurgatae et cum codd. MSS. collatae cura Richardi Rawlinson, Londini,1718, in-8_. There is also an edition published in Paris in 1616, 4to,_Petri Abelardi et Heloisae conjugis ejus, opera cum praefationeapologetica Franc. Antboesii, et Censura doctorum parisiensium; exeditione Andreae Quercetani (Andre Duchesne)_.] which asked one hundredand fifty-eight questions on all kinds of subjects. The famous champion oforthodoxy, St. Bernard, examined the book, and at the Council of Sens in1140 obtained a verdict against its author. He said that poor Abelard wasan infernal dragon who persecuted the Church, that Arius, Pelagius, andNestorius were not more dangerous, as Abelard united all these monsters inhis own person, and that he was a persecutor of the faith and theprecursor of Antichrist. These words of the celebrated Abbot of Clairvauxare more creditable to his zeal than to his charity. Abelard's discipleArnold of Brescia attended him at the Council, and shared in thecondemnations which St. Bernard so freely bestowed. Arnold's stormy andeventful life as a religious and political reformer was ended at Rome in1155, where he was strangled and burnt by order of the Emperor Frederick,his ashes being cast into the Tiber lest they should be venerated asrelics by his followers. St. Bernard described him as a man having thehead of a dove and the tail of a scorpion. Abelard was condemned toperpetual silence, and found a last refuge in the monastery of Cluny. Sideby side in the graveyard of the Paraclete Convent the bodies of Abelardand Heloise lie, whose earthly lives, though lighted by love and cheeredby religion, were clouded with overmuch sorrow, and await the time whenall theological questions will be solved and doubts and difficultiesraised by earthly mists and human frailties will be swept away, and weshall "know even as also we are known."

The nympholepts of old were curious and unhappy beings who, whilecarelessly strolling amidst sylvan shades, caught a hasty glimpse of somespirit of the woods, and were doomed ever afterwards to spend their livesin fruitlessly searching after it. The race of Fanatics are somewhat akinto these restless seekers. There is a wildness and excessive extravagancein their notions and actions which separates them from the calm followersof Truth, and leads them into strange courses and curious beliefs. How farthe sacred fire of enthusiasm may be separated from the fierce heat offanaticism we need not now inquire, nor whether a spark of the latter hasnot shone brilliantly in many a noble soul and produced brave deeds andacts of piety and self-sacrifice. Those whose fate is here recorded werefar removed from such noble characters; their fanaticism was akin tomadness, and many of them were fitter for an asylum rather than a gaol,which was usually their destination.

Foremost among them was Quirinus Kulmanus (Kuhlmann), who has been calledthe Prince of Fanatics, and wandered through many lands making manydisciples. He was born at Breslau in Silesia in 1651, and at an early agesaw strange visions, at one time the devils in hell, at another theBeatific Glory of God. His native country did not appreciate him, and heleft it to wander on from university to university, publishing hisravings. At Leyden he met with the works of Boehme, another fanatic, whowrote a strange book, entitled _Aurora_, which was suppressed by themagistrates. The reading of this author was like casting oil into thefire. Poor Kuhlmann became wilder still in his strange fanaticism, andjoined himself to a pretended prophet, John Rothe, whom the authorities atAmsterdam incarcerated, in order that he might be able to foretell withgreater certainty than he had done other things when and after what mannerhe should be released. Kuhlmann then wrote a book, entitled _ProdromusQuinquennii Mirabilis_, and published at Leyden in 1674, in which he setforth his peculiar views. He stated that in that same year the FifthMonarchy or the Christian Kingdom was about to commence, that he himselfwould bring forth a son from his own wife, that this son by many miracleswould found the kingdom, and that he himself was the Son of God. Onaccount of these mad ravings he was exiled by the Chief of the UnitedProvinces of the Netherlands, and expelled with infamy from the Universityof Leyden. But his strange mission did not cease. He wandered for sometime in France and England, where he printed at his own expense severalsmall books in 1681 and 1682, amongst others one piece addressed toMahomet IV., _De Conversione Turcarum_. The following passage occurs inthis fantastic production: "You saw, some months ago, O great EasternLeader, a comet of unusual magnitude, a true prognostic of the Kingdom ofthe Jesuelites, that is, of the restoration of all people to the one-threeGod. O well is thee, that thou hast turned thy mind before God, and byproclaiming a general fast throughout thy empire, hast begun to fulfil thewords of the Lord to the prophet Drabicius." He declares that if theChristians refuse to perform his will in destroying the kingdom ofAntichrist, the Turks and Tartars shall do it, to the disgrace of theChristians, which will be a horror to angels and to men.

He then proceeded to Turkey on his mission, and presented himself to theSultan. Although ignorant of the language of the country, he persuadedhimself that he could speak in any tongue; but when they led him into thepresence of the Sultan he waited in vain for the burning words ofeloquence to flow. The Turks dealt with him according to his folly, andbestowed on him a sound thrashing. Thence he proceeded to Russia, and whenhe was about to marry a second wife, his former spouse being left inEngland, the Patriarch of the Russian Church condemned him to be burnt atMoscow in 1689. A follower of Kuhlmann's, named Nordermann, who also wrotea book on the Second Advent of Christ, shared his fate. Kuhlmann alsowrote a volume of verses, entitled _The Berlin and Amsterdam "Kuhl-festival" at the Gathering of Lutherans and Calvinists_, whichsufficiently attests his insanity. The following is a specimen of thelucidity of his works: "The more I continued my doctrines, the moreopposition I received, so that also the higher world of light with which Iam illuminated, in their light I was enlightened, or shadowed, when Iproceeded, and in their light lit I up brighter lights."

A fitting companion to Kuhlmann was John Tennhart, a barber of Nuremberg,born in 1662, who used to speak continually of the visions, dreams, andcolloquies which he had with God, and boasted that the office of a scribewas entrusted to him by the Divine Will. He endeavoured to persuade allmen that the words he wrote were verily and indeed the words of God. Theworld was not disposed to interfere with the poor barber who imaginedhimself inspired, but in an evil hour he published a book against thepriests, entitled _Worte Gottes, oder Tractaetlein an den so genanntengeistlichen Stand_, which caused its author great calamities. He was castinto prison by order of the senate of the Nuremberg State. On his releasehe again published his former work, with others which he also believed tobe inspired, and again in 1714 was imprisoned at Nuremberg. Hisincarceration did not, however, last long, and Tennhart died while he wasjourneying from the city which so little appreciated his ravings to findin Cassel a more secure resting-place.

Amongst the fanatics of the seventeenth century may be classed JeremiahFelbinger, a native of Brega, a town in the Prussian State of Silesia, whowas an early advocate of the heresy of the Unitarians. For some years hewas a soldier, and then became a schoolmaster. He wrote _Prodromusdemonstrationis_, published in 1654, in which he attempted to prove hisUnitarian ideas. Shortly before this, in 1653, he wrote _DemonstrationesChristianae_, and finally his _Epistola ad Christianos_, published atAmsterdam in 1672. His strange views and perverted opinions first causedhis dismissal from the army, and his works upon the Unitarian doctrinesnecessitated his removal from the office of teacher. He then journeyed toHelmstadt, but there the wanderer found no rest; for when he tried tocirculate his obnoxious books, he was ordered to leave the city beforesunset. Finally he settled in Amsterdam, the home of free-thinkers, wheremen were allowed a large amount of religious liberty; there printersproduced without let or hindrance books which were condemned elsewhere andcould only be printed in secret presses and obscure corners of citiesgoverned by more orthodox rulers. Here Felbinger passed the rest of hismiserable life in great poverty, earning a scanty pittance by instructingyouths and correcting typographical errors. He died in 1689, aged seventy-three years.

The seventeenth century was fruitful in fanatics, and not the least madwas Simon Morin, who was burnt at Paris in 1663. His fatal book was his_Pensees de Simon Morin_ (Paris, 1647, in-8), which contains a curiousmixture of visions and nonsense, including the principal errors of theQuietists and adding many of his own. Amongst other mad ravings, hedeclared that there would be very shortly a general reformation of theChurch, and that all nations should be converted to the true faith, andthat this reformation was to be accomplished by the Second Advent of ourLord in His state of glory, incorporated in Morin himself; and that forthe execution of the things to which he was destined, he was to beattended by a great number of perfect souls, and such as participated inthe glorious state of Jesus Christ, whom he therefore called the championsof God. He was condemned by the Parliament of Paris, and after having donepenance, dressed in his shirt, with a rope round his neck and a torch inhis hand, before the entrance of Notre Dame, he was burnt with his bookand writings, his ashes being subsequently cast into the air. Morin hadseveral followers who shared his fantastic views, and these poor"champions of God" were condemned to witness the execution of theirleader, to be publicly whipped and branded with the mark of fleur-de-lys,and to spend the rest of their lives as galley-slaves.

Poland witnessed the burning of Cazimir Liszinski in 1689, whose asheswere placed in a cannon and shot into the air. This Polish gentleman wasaccused of atheism by the Bishop of Potsdam. His condemnation was basedupon certain atheistical manuscripts found in his possession, containingseveral novel doctrines, such as "God is not the creator of man; but manis the creator of a God gathered together from nothing." His writingscontain many other extravagant notions of the same kind.

A few years later the religious world of both England and Ireland wasexcited and disturbed by the famous book of John Toland, a scepticalIrishman, entitled _Christianity not Mysterious_ (London, 1696). Itsauthor was born in Londonderry in 1670, and was endowed with much naturalability, but this did not avail to avert the calamities which pursueindiscreet and reckless writers. He wrote his book at the early age oftwenty-five years, for the purpose of defending Holy Scripture from theattacks of infidels and atheists; he essayed to prove that there wasnothing in religion contrary to sound reason, and to show that themysteries of religion were not opposed to reason. But his work arousedmuch opposition both in England and Ireland, as there were many statementsin the book which were capable of a rationalistic interpretation. A secondedition was published in London with an apology by Toland in 1702. InDublin he raised against himself a storm of opposition, not only onaccount of his book, but also by his vain and foolish manner ofpropagating his views. He began openly to deride Christianity, to scoff atthe clergy, to despise the worship of God, and so passed his life thatwhoever associated with him was judged to be an impious and infamousperson. He proposed to form a society which he called Socratia; the hymnsto be sung by the members were the Odes of Horace, and the prayers wereblasphemous productions, composed by Toland, in derision of those used inthe Roman Church. The Council of Religion of the Irish House of Parliamentcondemned his book to be burnt, and some of the members wished to imprisonits author, who after enduring many privations wisely sought safety inflight. A host of writers arrayed themselves in opposition to Toland andrefuted his book, amongst whom were John Norris, Stillingfleet, Payne,Beverley, Clarke, Leibnitz, and others. Toland wrote also _The Life ofMilton_ (London, 1698), which was directed against the authenticity of theNew Testament; _The Nazarene, or Christianity, Judaic, Pagan, andMahometan_ (1718); and _Pantheisticon_ (1720). The outcry raised by theorthodox party against the "poor gentleman" who had "to beg for half-crowns," and "ran into debt for his wigs, clothes, and lodging," togetherwith his own vanity and conceit, changed him from being a somewhat free-thinking Christian into an infidel and atheist or Pantheist. He died inextreme poverty at Putney in 1722.

A fitting companion to Toland was Thomas Woolston, who lived about thesame time; he was born at Northampton in 1669, and died at London in 1733.He was a free-thinker, and a man of many attainments, whose works becamewidely known and furnished weapons for the use of Voltaire and otheratheistical writers. In 1705 he wrote a book entitled _The Old Apology_,in which he endeavoured to show that in the interpretation of the HolyScriptures the literal meaning ought to be abandoned, and that the eventsrecorded therein were merely allegories. In his book _Free Gifts to theClergy_ he denounced all who favoured the literal interpretation asapostates and ministers of Antichrist. Finally, in his _Discourses on theMiracles_ (1726) he denied entirely the authenticity of miracles, andstated that they were merely stories and allegories. He thought that theliteral account of the miracles is improbable and untrustworthy, that theywere parables and prophetical recitations. These and many other such-likedoctrines are found in his works. Woolston held at that time the post oftutor at Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge; but on account of his workshe was expelled from the College and cast into prison. According to oneaccount of his life, he died in prison in 1731. Another record states thathe was released on paying a fine of L100 after enduring one year'sincarceration, and that he bore his troubles bravely, passing an honestlife and enduring reproaches with an equal mind. Not a few abletheologians set themselves the task of refuting the errors of Woolston,amongst whom were John Ray, Stebbins, Bishop of St. Davids, and Sherlock,whose book was translated into French. A _Life of Woolston_ has beenwritten anonymously by some one who somewhat favoured his views andsupported his tenets. He may certainly be classed among the leaders ofFree Thought in the eighteenth century.

John Biddle was a vehement advocate of Socinian and Unitarian opinions,attacking the belief in the Trinity and in the Divinity of our Lord. TheHoly Spirit was accounted by him as the first of the angels. His fatalbook was entitled _The Faith of one God, who is only the Father, and ofone Mediator between God and man, who is only the man Christ Jesus; and ofone Holy Spirit, the gift, and sent of God, asserted and defended inseveral tracts contained in this volume_ (London, 1691, in-4). This workwas publicly burnt and its author imprisoned. Biddle was born at Wotton-under-Edge in 1615; he went to Oxford, and became a teacher at a grammar-school at Gloucester. He underwent several terms of imprisonment onaccount of the opinions expressed in his writings, and died in gaol in1662.

Amongst the fanatics whose works were fatal to them must be enrolled thefamous advocates of polygamy, Johann Lyser, Bernardino Ochino, and SamuelFriedrich Willenberg. Lyser was born at Leipsic in 1631, and although heever remained a bachelor and abhorred womankind, nevertheless tried todemonstrate that not only was polygamy lawful, but that it was a blessedestate commanded by God. He first brought out a dialogue written in thevernacular entitled _Sinceri Wahrenbergs kurzes Gespraech von derPolygamie_; and this little work was followed by a second book, _DasKoenigliche Marck aller Laender_ (Freyburg, 1676, in-4). Then he producedanother work, entitled _Theophili Aletaei discursus politicus dePolygamia_. A second edition of this work followed, which bore the title_Polygamia triumphatrix, id est, discursus politicus de Polygamia, auctoreTheoph. Aletoeo, cum notis Athanasii Vincentii, omnibus Anti-polygamis,ubique locorum, terrarum, insularum, pagorum, urbium modeste et pieopposita (Londini Scanorum_, 1682, in-4). On account of the strange viewsexpressed in this work he was deprived of his office of Inspector, and wasobliged to seek protection from a powerful Count, by whose advice it issaid that Lyser first undertook the advocacy of polygamy. On the death ofhis friend Lyser was compelled frequently to change his abode, andwandered through most of the provinces of Germany. He was imprisoned bythe Count of Hanover, and then expelled. In Denmark his book was burned bythe public executioner. At another place he was imprisoned and beaten andhis books burned. At length, travelling from Italy to Holland, he enduredevery kind of calamity, and after all his misfortunes he died miserably ina garret at Amsterdam, in 1684. It is curious that Lyser, who nevermarried nor desired wedlock, should have advocated polygamy; but it issaid that he was led on by a desire for providing for the public safety byincreasing the population of the country, though probably the love ofnotoriety, which has added many authors' names to the category of fools,contributed much to his madness.

Infected with the same notions was Bernardino Ochino, a Franciscan, andafterwards a Capuchin, whose dialogue _De Polygamia_ was fatal to him.Although he was an old man, the authorities at Basle ordered him to leavethe city in the depth of a severe winter. He wandered into Poland, butthrough the opposition of the Papal Nuncio, Commendone, he was againobliged to fly. He had to mourn over the death of two sons and a daughter,who died of the plague in Poland, and finally Ochino ended his woes inMoravia. Such was the miserable fate of Ochino, who was at one time themost famous preacher in the whole of Italy. He had a wonderful eloquence,which seized upon the minds of his hearers and carried them whither hewould. No church was large enough to contain the multitudes which flockedto hear him. Ochino was a skilled linguist, and, after leaving the RomanChurch, he wrote a book against the Papacy in English, which was printedin London, and also a sermon on predestination. He visited England incompany with Peter Martyr, but on the death of Edward VI., on account ofthe changes introduced in Mary's reign these two doctors again crossed theseas, and retired to a safer retreat. His brilliant career was entirelyruined by his fatal frenzy and foolish fanaticism for polygamy.

The third of this strange triumvirate was Samuel Friedrich Willenberg, adoctor of law of the famous University of Cracow, who wrote a book _Definibus polygamiae licitae_ and aroused the hatred of the Poles. In 1715,by command of the High Court of the King of Poland, his book was condemnedto be burnt, and its author nearly shared the same fate. He escaped,however, this terrible penalty, and was fined one hundred thousand goldpieces.

With these unhappy advocates of a system which violates the sacredness ofmarriage, we must close our list of fanatics whose works have proved fatalto them. Many of them deserve our pity rather than our scorn; for theysuffered from that species of insanity which, according to Holmes, isoften the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. At any rate, they furnishan example of that

"Faith, fanatic faith, which, wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last."

Superstition is a deformed monster who dies hard; and like Loki of theSagas when the snake dropped poison on his forehead, his writhings shookthe world and caused earthquakes. Now its power is well-nigh dead."Superstition! that horrible incubus which dwelt in darkness, shunning thelight, with all its racks and poison-chalices, and foul sleeping-draughts,is passing away without return." [Footnote: Carlyle.] But society was onceleavened with it. Alchemy, astrology, and magic were a fashionable cult,and so long as its professors pleased their patrons, proclaimed "smooththings and prophesied deceits," all went well with them; but it is an easything to offend fickle-minded folk, and when the philosopher's stone andthe secret of perpetual youth after much research were not producible, thecry of "impostor" was readily raised, and the trade of magic had itsuncertainties, as well as its charms.

Our first author who suffered as an astrologer, though it is extremelydoubtful whether he was ever guilty of the charges brought against him,was Henry Cornelius Agrippa, who was born at Cologne in 1486, a man ofnoble birth and learned in Medicine, Law, and Theology. His supposeddevotion to necromancy and his adventurous career have made his story afavourite one for romance-writers. We find him in early life fighting inthe Italian war under the Emperor Maximilian, whose private secretary hewas. The honour of knighthood conferred upon him did not satisfy hisambition, and he betook himself to the fields of learning. At the requestof Margaret of Austria, he wrote a treatise on the Excellence of Wisdom,which he had not the courage to publish, fearing to arouse the hostilityof the theologians of the day, as his views were strongly opposed to thescholasticism of the monks. He lived the roving life of a mediaevalscholar, now in London illustrating the Epistles of St. Paul, now atCologne or Pavia or Turin lecturing on Divinity, and at another time atMetz, where he resided some time and took part in the government of thecity. There, in 1521, he was bereaved of his beautiful and noble wife.There too we read of his charitable act of saving from death a poor womanwho was accused of witchcraft. Then he became involved in controversy,combating the idea that St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, hadthree husbands, and in consequence of the hostility raised by his opinionshe was compelled to leave the city. The people used to avoid him, as if hecarried about with him some dread infection, and fled from him whenever heappeared in the streets. At length we see him established at Lyons asphysician to the Queen Mother, the Princess Louise of Savoy, and enjoyinga pension from Francis I. This lady seems to have been of a superstitiousturn of mind, and requested the learned Agrippa, whose fame for astrologyhad doubtless reached her, to consult the stars concerning the destiniesof France. This Agrippa refused, and complained of being employed in suchfollies. His refusal aroused the ire of the Queen; her courtiers eagerlytook up the cry, and "conjurer," "necromancer," etc., were thecomplimentary terms which were freely applied to the former favourite.Agrippa fled to the court of Margaret of Austria, the governor of theNetherlands under Charles V., and was appointed the Emperor'shistoriographer. He wrote a history of the reign of that monarch, andduring the life of Margaret he continued his prosperous career, and at herdeath he delivered an eloquent funeral oration.

But troubles were in store for the illustrious author. In 1530 hepublished a work, _De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et Artium,atque Excellentia Verbi Dei Dedamatio_ (Antwerp). His severe satire uponscholasticism and its professors roused the anger of those whom withscathing words he castigated. The Professors of the University of Louvaindeclared that they detected forty-three errors in the book; and Agrippawas forced to defend himself against their attacks in a little bookpublished at Leyden, entitled _Apologia pro defencione Declamationis deVanitate Scientiarum contra Theologistes Lovanienses_. In spite of suchpowerful friends as the Papal Legate, Cardinal Campeggio, and Cardinal dela Marck, Prince Bishop of Liege, Agrippa was vilified by his opponents,and imprisoned at Brussels in 1531. The fury against his book continued torage, and its author declares in his Epistles: "When I brought out my bookfor the purpose of exciting sluggish minds to the study of sound learning,and to provide some new arguments for these monks to discuss in theirassemblies, they repaid this kindness by rousing common hostility againstme; and now by suggestions, from their pulpits, in public meetings, beforemixed multitudes, with great clamourings they declaim against me; theyrage with passion, and there is no impiety, no heresy, no disgrace whichthey do not charge me with, with wonderful gesticulations--namely, withclapping of fingers, with hands outstretched and then suddenly drawn back,with gnashing of teeth, by raging, by spitting, by scratching their heads,by gnawing their nails, by stamping with their feet, they rage likemadmen, and omit no kind of lunatic behaviour by means of which they mayarouse the hatred and anger of both prince and people against me."

The book was examined by the Inquisition and placed by the Council ofTrent on the list of prohibited works, amongst the heretical books of thefirst class. Erasmus, however, spoke very highly of it, and declared it tobe "the work of a man of sparkling intellect, of varied reading and goodmemory, who always blames bad things, and praises the good." Schelhorndeclares that the book is remarkable for the brilliant learning displayedin it, and for the very weighty testimony which it bears against theerrors and faults of the time.

Our author was released from his prison at Brussels, and wrote anotherbook, _De occulta Philosophia_ (3 vols., Antwerp, 1533), which enabled hisenemies to bring against him the charge of magic. Stories were told of themoney which Agrippa paid at inns turning into pieces of horn and shell,and of the mysterious dog which ate and slept with him, which was indeed ademon in disguise and vanished at his death. They declared he had awonderful wand, and a mirror which reflected the images of persons absentor dead.

The reputed wizard at length returned to France, where he was imprisonedon a charge of speaking evil of the Queen Mother, who had evidently notforgotten his refusal to consult the stars for her benefit. He was,however, soon released, and after his strange wandering life our authorended his labours in a hospital at Grenoble, where he died in 1535. Inaddition to the works we have mentioned, he wrote _De Nobilitate etProecellentia Faeminei Sexus_ (Antwerp, 1529), in order to flatter hispatroness Margaret of Austria, and an early work, _De Triplici RationeCognoscendi Deum_ (1515). The monkish epigram, unjust though it be, isperhaps worth recording:--

"Among the gods there is Momus who reviles all men; among the heroes thereis Hercules who slays monsters; among the demons there is Pluto, the kingof Erebus, who is in a rage with all the shades; among the philosophersthere is Democritus who laughs at all things, Heraclitus who bewails allthings, Pyrrhon who is ignorant of all things, Aristotle who thinks thathe knows all things, Diogenes who despises all things. But this Agrippaspares none, despises all things, knows all things, is ignorant of allthings, bewails all things, laughs at all things, rages against allthings, reviles all things, being himself a philosopher, a demon, a hero,a god, everything."

The impostor Joseph Francis Borri was a very different character. He was afamous chemist and charlatan, born at Milan in 1627, and educated by theJesuits at Rome, being a student of medicine and chemistry. He lived awild and depraved life, and was compelled to retire into a seminary. Thenhe suddenly changed his conduct, and pretended to be inspired by God,advocating in a book which he published certain strange notions withregard to the existence of the Trinity, and expressing certain ridiculousopinions, such as that the mother of God was a certain goddess, that theHoly Spirit became incarnate in the womb of Anna, and that not only Christbut the Virgin also are adored and contained in the Holy Eucharist. Inspite of the folly of his teaching he attracted many followers, and alsothe attention of the Inquisition. Perceiving his danger, he fled to Milan,and thence to a more safe retreat in Amsterdam and Hamburg. In his absencethe Inquisition examined his book and passed its dread sentence upon itsauthor, declaring that "Borri ought to be punished as a heretic for hiserrors, that he had incurred both the 'general' and 'particular' censures,that he was deprived of all honour and prerogative in the Church, of whosemercy he had proved himself unworthy, that he was expelled from hercommunion, and that his effigy should be handed over to the CardinalLegate for the execution of the punishment he had deserved." All hisheretical writings were condemned to the flames, and all his goodsconfiscated. On the 3rd of January, 1661, Borri's effigy and his bookswere burned by the public executioner, and Borri declared that he neverfelt so cold, when he knew that he was being burned by proxy. He then fledto a more secure asylum in Denmark. He imposed upon Frederick III., sayingthat he had found the philosopher's stone. After the death of thiscredulous monarch Borri journeyed to Vienna, where he was delivered up tothe representative of the Pope, and cast into prison. He was then sent toRome, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment in the Castle of St. Angelo,where he died in 1685. His principal work was entitled _La Chiave delgabineito del cavagliere G. F. Borri_ (The key of the cabinet of Borri).Certainly the Church showed him no mercy, but perhaps his hard fate wasnot entirely undeserved.

The tragic death of Urban Grandier shows how dangerous it was in the daysof superstition to incur the displeasure of powerful men, and how easilythe charge of necromancy could be used for the purpose of "removing" anobnoxious person. Grandier was cure of the Church of St. Peter at Loudunand canon of the Church of the Holy Cross. He was a pleasant companion,agreeable in conversation, and much admired by the fair sex. Indeed hewrote a book, _Contra Caelibatum Clericorum_, in which he stronglyadvocated the marriage of the clergy, and showed that he was not himselfindifferent to the charms of the ladies. In an evil hour he wrote a littlebook entitled _La cordonniere de Loudun_, in which he attacked Richelieu,and aroused the undying hatred of the great Cardinal. Richelieu was atthat time in the zenith of his power, and when offended he was not veryscrupulous as to the means he employed to carry out his vengeance, as thefate of our author abundantly testifies.

In the town of Loudun was a famous convent of Ursuline nuns, and Grandiersolicited the office of director of the nunnery, but happily he wasprevented by circumstances from undertaking that duty. A short timeafterwards the nuns were attacked with a curious and contagious frenzy,imagining themselves tormented by evil spirits, of whom the chief wasAsmodeus. [Footnote: This was the demon mentioned in Tobit iii. 8, 17, whoattacked Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, and killed her seven husbands.Rabbinical writers consider him as the chief of evil spirits, and recounthis marvellous deeds. He is regarded as the fire of impure love.] Theypretended that they were possessed by the demon, and accused the unhappyGrandier of casting the spells of witchcraft upon them. He indignantlyrefuted the calumny, and appealed to the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Charlesde Sourdis. This wise prelate succeeded in calming the troubled minds ofthe nuns, and settled the affair.

In the meantime the vengeful eye of Richelieu was watching for anopportunity. He sent his emissary, Councillor Laubardemont, to Loudun, whorenewed the accusation against Grandier. The amiable cleric, who had led apious and regular life, was declared guilty of adultery, sacrilege, magic,witchcraft, demoniacal possession, and condemned to be burned alive afterreceiving an application of the torture. In the market-place of Loudun in1643 this terrible sentence was carried into execution, and together withhis book, _Contra Caelibatum Clericorum_, poor Grandier was committed tothe flames. When he ascended his funeral pile, a fly was observed to buzzaround his head. A monk who was standing near declared that, as Beelzebubwas the god of flies, the devil was present with Grandier in his dying hourand wished to bear away his soul to the infernal regions. An account ofthis strange and tragic history was published by Aubin in his _Histoiredes diables de Loudun, ou cruels effets de la vengeance de Richelieu_(Amsterdam, 1693).

Our own country has produced a noted alchemist and astrologer, Dr. Dee,whose fame extended to many lands. He was a very learned man and prolificwriter, and obtained the office of warden of the collegiate church ofManchester through the favour of Queen Elizabeth, who was a firm believerin his astrological powers. His age was the age of witchcraft, and in nocounty was the belief in the magic power of the "evil eye" more prevalentthan in Lancashire. Dr. Dee, however, disclaimed all dealings with "theblack art" in his petition to the great "Solomon of the North," James I.,which was couched in these words: "It has been affirmed that yourmajesty's suppliant was the conjurer belonging to the most honourableprivy council of your majesty's predecessor, of famous memory, QueenElizabeth; and that he is, or hath been, a caller or invocater of devils,or damned spirits; these slanders, which have tended to his utter undoing,can no longer be endured; and if on trial he is found guilty of theoffence imputed to him, he offers himself willingly to the punishment ofdeath; yea, either to be stoned to death, or to be buried quick, or to beburned unmercifully." In spite of his assertions to the contrary, thelearned doctor must have had an intimate acquaintance with "the blackart," and was the companion and friend of Edward Kelly, a notoriousnecromancer, who for his follies had his ears cut off at Lancaster. ThisKelly used to exhume and consult the dead; in the darkness of night he andhis companions entered churchyards, dug up the bodies of men recentlyburied, and caused them to utter predictions concerning the fate of theliving. Dr. Dee's friendship with Kelly was certainly suspicious. On thecoronation of Queen Elizabeth, he foretold the future by consulting thestars. When a waxen image of the queen was found in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields,which was a sure sign that some one was endeavouring to cast spells uponher majesty, Dr. Dee pretended that he was able to defeat the designs ofsuch evil-disposed persons, and prevent his royal mistress feeling any ofthe pains which might be inflicted on her effigy. In addition his books,of which there were many, witness against him. These were collected byCasaubon, who published in London in 1659 a _resume_ of the learneddoctor's works.

Manchester was made too hot, even for the alchemist, through theopposition of his clerical brethren, and he was compelled to resign hisoffice of warden of the college. Then, accompanied by Kelly, he wanderedabroad, and was received as an honoured guest at the courts of manysovereigns. The Emperor Rodolphe, Stephen, King of Poland, and other royalpersonages welcomed the renowned astrologers, who could read the stars,had discovered the elixir of life, which rendered men immortal, thephilosopher's stone in the form of a powder which changed the bottom of awarming-pan into pure silver, simply by warming it at the fire, and madethe precious metals so plentiful that children played at quoits withgolden rings. No wonder they were so welcome! They were acquainted withthe Rosicrucian philosophy, could hold correspondence with the spirits ofthe elements, imprison a spirit in a mirror, ring, or stone, and compel itto answer questions. Dr. Dee's mirror, which worked such wonders, and wasfound in his study at his death in 1608, is now in the British Museum. Inspite of all these marvels, the favour which the great man for a timeenjoyed was fleet and transient. He fell into poverty and died in greatmisery, his downfall being brought about partly by his works but mainly byhis practices.

Associated with Lancashire demonology is the name of John Darrell, acleric, afterwards preacher at St. Mary's, Nottingham, who published anarrative of the strange and grievous vexation of the devil of sevenpersons in Lancashire. This remarkable case occurred at Clayworth in theparish of Leigh, in the family of one Nicholas Starkie, whose house wasturned into a perfect bedlam. It is vain to follow the account of thevagaries of the possessed, the howlings and barkings, the scratchings ofholes for the familiars to get to them, the charms and magic circles ofthe impostor and exorcist Hartley, and the godly ministrations of theaccomplished author, who with two other preachers overcame the evilspirits.

Unfortunately for him, Harsnett, Bishop of Chichester, and afterwardsArchbishop of York, doubted the marvellous powers of the pious author, Dr.Darrell, and had the audacity to suggest that he made a trade of castingout devils, and even went so far as to declare that Darrell and thepossessed had arranged the matter between them, and that Darrell hadinstructed them how they were to act in order to appear possessed. Theauthor was subsequently condemned as an impostor by the Queen'scommissioners, deposed from his ministry, and condemned to a long term ofimprisonment with further punishment to follow. The base conduct andpretences of Darrell and others obliged the clergy to enact the followingcanon (No. 73): "That no minister or ministers, without license anddirection of the bishop, under his hand and seal obtained, attempt, uponany pretence whatsoever, either of possession or obsession, by fasting andprayer, to cast 'out any devil or devils, under pain of the imputation ofimposture, or cozenage, and deposition from the ministry." This penalty atthe present day not many of the clergy are in danger of incurring.

Science in its infancy found many powerful opponents, who, notunderstanding the nature of the newly-born babe, strove to strangle it.But the infant grew into a healthy child in spite of its cruel stepmother,and cried so loudly and talked so strangely that the world was forced tolisten to its utterances. These were regarded with distrust and aversionby the theologians of the day, for they were supposed to be in oppositionto Revelation, and contrary to the received opinions of all learned andpious people. Therefore Science met with very severe treatment; itsfollowers were persecuted with relentless vehemence, and "blasphemousfables" and "dangerous deceits" were the only epithets which couldcharacterise its doctrines.

The controversy between Religion and Science still rages, in spite of thedeclaration of Professor Huxley that in his opinion the conflict betweenthe two is entirely factitious. But theologians are wiser now than theywere in the days of Galileo; they are waiting to see what the scientistscan prove, and then, when the various hypotheses are shown to be true, itwill be time enough to reconcile the verities of the Faith with the factsof Science.

To those who believed that the earth was flat it was somewhat startling tobe told that there were antipodes. This elementary truth of cosmologyBishop Virgil of Salzbourg was courageous enough to assert as early asA.D. 764. He wrote a book in which he stated that men of another race, notsprung from Adam, lived in the world beneath our feet. This work arousedthe anger of Pope Zacharias II, who wrote to the King of Bavaria thatVirgil should be expelled from the temple of God and the Church, anddeprived of God and the Church, and deprived of his office, unless heconfessed his perverse errors. In spite of the censure and sentence ofexcommunication pronounced upon him, Bishop Virgil was canonised by PopeGregory XI.; thus, in spite of his misfortunes brought about by his book,his memory was revered and honoured by the Western Church.

If the account of his imprisonment be true (of which there is nocontemporary evidence) our own celebrated English philosopher, RogerBacon, is one of the earliest scientific authors whose works proved fatalto them. In 1267 he sent his book, _Opus Majus_, together with his _OpusMinus_, an abridgement of his former work, to Pope Clement IV. After thedeath of that Pope Bacon was cited by the General of the Franciscan order,to which he belonged, to appear before his judges at Paris, where he wascondemned to imprisonment. He is said to have languished in the dungeonfourteen years, and, worn out by his sufferings, to have died in hisbeloved Oxford during the year of his release, 1292. The charge of magicwas freely brought against him. His great work, which has been termed "the_Encyclopaedia_ and the _Novum Organum_ of the thirteenth century,"discloses an unfettered mind and judgment far in advance of the spirit ofthe age in which he lived. In addition to this he wrote _CompendiumPhilosophiae_, _De mirabili Potestate artis et naturae, Speculamathematica, Speculum alchemicum_, and other works.

The treatment which Galileo received at the hands of the ecclesiastics ofhis day is well known. This father of experimental philosophy was born atPisa in 1564, and at the age of twenty-four years, through the favour ofthe Medicis, was elected Professor of Mathematics at the University of thesame town. Resigning his chair in 1592, he became professor at Padua, andthen at Florence. He startled the world by the publication of his firstbook, _Sidereus Nuntius_, in which he disclosed his important astronomicaldiscoveries, amongst others the satellites of Jupiter and the spots on thesun. This directed the attention of the Inquisition to his labours, but in1632 he published his immortal work _Dialogo sopra i due Massimi Sistemidel monda, Tolemaico et Copernicano_ (Florence), which was the cause ofhis undoing. In this book he defended the opinion of Copernicus concerningthe motion of the earth round the sun, which was supposed by thetheologians of the day to be an opinion opposed to the teaching of HolyScripture and subversive of all truth. The work was brought before theInquisition at Rome, and condemned by the order of Pope Urban VIII.Galileo was commanded to renounce his theory, but this he refused to do,and was cast into prison. "Are these then my judges?" he exclaimed when hewas returning from the presence of the Inquisitors, whose ignoranceastonished him. There he remained for five long years; until at length,wearied by his confinement, the squalor of the prison, and by hisincreasing years, he consented to recant his "heresy," and regained hisliberty. The old man lost his sight at seventy-four years of age, and diedfour years later in 1642. In addition to the work which caused him sogreat misfortunes he published _Discorso e Demonstr. interna alle duenuove Scienze, Delia Scienza Meccanica (1649), Tractato della Sfera(1655)_; and the telescope, the isochronism of the vibrations of thependulum, the hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, were all invented bythis great leader of astronomical and scientific discoverers. Many otherdiscoveries might have been added to these, had not his widow submittedthe sage's MSS. to her confessor, who ruthlessly destroyed all that heconsidered unfit for publication. Possibly he was not the best judge ofsuch matters!

Italy also produced another unhappy philosophic writer, Jordano Bruno, wholived about the same time as Galileo, and was born at Nole in 1550, beingfourteen years his senior. At an early age he acquired a great love ofstudy and a thirst for knowledge. The Renaissance and the revival oflearning had opened wide the gates of knowledge, and there were many eagerfaces crowding around the doors, many longing to enter the fair Paradiseand explore the far-extending vistas which met their gaze. It was an ageof anxious and eager inquiry; the torpor of the last centuries had passedaway; and a new world of discovery, with spring-like freshness, dawnedupon the sight. Jordano Bruno was one of these zealous students of thesixteenth century. We see him first in a Dominican convent, but the old-world scholasticism had no charms for him. The narrow groove of thecloister was irksome to his freedom-loving soul. He cast off his monkishgarb, and wandered through Europe as a knight-errant of philosophy,_multum ille et terris jactatus et alto_, teaching letters. In 1580 wefind him at Geneva conferring with Calvin and Beza, but Calvinism did notcommend itself to his philosophic mind. Thence he journeyed to Paris,where in 1582 he produced one of his more important works, _De umbrisidearum_. Soon afterwards he came to London, where he became the intimatefriend of Sir Philip Sidney. Here he wrote the work which proved fatal tohim, entitled _Spaccio della bestia triomphante_ (The expulsion of thetriumphing beast) (London, 1584). [Footnote: The full title of the workis: _Spaccio della bestia triomphante da giove, effetuato dal conseglo,revelato da Mercurio, recitato da sofia, udito da saulino, registrato dalnolano, divisa in tre dialogi, subdivisi in tre parti. In Parigi, 1584,in-8_.] This was an allegory in which he combated superstition andsatirised the errors of Rome. But in this work Bruno fell into grievouserrors and dangerous atheistic deceits. He scoffed at the worship of God,declared that the books of the sacred canon were merely dreams, that Mosesworked his wonders by magical art, and blasphemed the Saviour. Brunofurnished another example of those whose faith, having been at one timeforced to accept dogmas bred of superstition, has been weakened andaltogether destroyed when they have perceived the falseness andfallibility of that which before they deemed infallible.

But in spite of these errors Bruno's learning was remarkable. He had anextensive knowledge of all sciences. From England he went to Germany, andlectured at Wittenberg, Prague, and Frankfort. His philosophy resembledthat of Spinosa. He taught that God is the substance and life of allthings, and that the universe is an immense animal, of which God is thesoul.

At length he had the imprudence to return to Italy, and became a teacherat Padua. At Venice he was arrested by order of the Inquisition in 1595,and conducted to Rome, where, after an imprisonment of two years, in orderthat he might be punished as gently as possible without the shedding ofblood, he was sentenced to be burned alive. With a courage worthy of aphilosopher, he exclaimed to his merciless judges, "You pronounce sentenceupon me with greater fear than I receive it." Bruno's other great workswere _Della causa, principio e uno_ (1584), _De infinito universo etmundis_ (1584), _De monade numero et figura_ (Francfort, 1591).

The Inquisition at Rome at this period was particularly active in itsendeavours to reform errant philosophers, and Bruno was by no means theonly victim who felt its power. Thomas Campanella, born in Calabria, inItaly, A.D. 1568, conceived the design of reforming philosophy about thesame time as our more celebrated Bacon. This was a task too great for hisstrength, nor did he receive much encouragement from the existing powers.He attacked scholasticism with much vigour, and censured the philosophy ofAristotle, the admired of the schoolmen. He wrote a work entitled_Philosophia sensibus demonstrata_, in which he defended the ideas ofTelesio, who explained the laws of nature as founded upon two principles,the heat of the sun and the coldness of the earth. He declared that allour knowledge was derived from sensation, and that all parts of the earthwere endowed with feeling. Campanella also wrote _Prodromus philosophiaeinstaurandae_ (1617); _Philosophia rationalis_, embracing grammar,dialectics, rhetoric, poetry, and history; _Universalis Philosophatus_, atreatise on metaphysics; _Civitas solis_, a description of a kind ofUtopia, after the fashion of Plato's _Republic_. But the fatal book whichcaused his woes was his _Atheismus triumphatus_. On account of this workhe was cast into prison, and endured so much misery that we can scarcelybear to think of his tortures and sufferings. For twenty-five years heendured all the squalor and horrors of a mediaeval dungeon; throughthirty-five hours he was "questioned" with such exceeding cruelty that allhis veins and arteries were so drawn and stretched by the rack that theblood could not flow. Yet he bore all this terrible agony with a bravespirit, and did not utter a cry. Various causes have been assigned for theseverity of this torture inflicted on poor Campanella. Some attribute itto the malice of the scholastic philosophers, whom he had offended by hisworks. Others say that he was engaged in some treasonable conspiracy tobetray the kingdom of Naples to the Spaniards; but it is probable that his_Atheismus triumphatus_ was the chief cause of his woes. Sorbiere has thuspassed judgment upon this fatal book: "Though nothing is dearer to me thantime, the loss of which grieves me sorely, I confess that I have lost bothoil and labour in reading the empty book of an empty monk, ThomasCampanella. It is a farrago of vanities, has no order, many obscurities,and perpetual barbarisms. One thing I have learned in wandering throughthis book, that I will never read another book of this author, even if Icould spare the time."

Authorities differ with regard to the ultimate fate of this author. Somesay that he was killed in prison in 1599; others declare that he wasreleased and fled to France, where he enjoyed a pension granted to him byRichelieu. However, during his incarceration he continued his studies, andwrote a work concerning the Spanish monarchy which was translated fromItalian into German and Latin. In spite of his learning he made manyenemies by his arrogance; and his restless and ambitious spirit carriedhim into enterprises which were outside the proper sphere of hisphilosophy. In this he followed the example of many other lucklessauthors, to whom the advice of the homely proverb would have been valuablewhich states that "a shoemaker should stick to his last."

The book entitled _De la Philosophie de la Nature, ou Traite de moralepour l'espece humaine, tire de la philosophie et fonde sur la nature_(Paris, _Saillant et Nyon_, 1769, 6 vols., in-12), has a curious history.It inflicted punishment not only on its author, De Lisle de Sales, butalso on two learned censors of books who approved its contents, the AbbeChretien and M. Lebas, the bookseller Saillant, and two of its printers.De Lisle was sent to prison, but the severity of the punishment arousedpopular indignation, and his journey to gaol resembled a triumph. All thelearned *men of Paris visited the imprisoned philosopher. All thesentences were reversed by the Parliament of Paris in 1777. This book hasoften been reproduced and translated in other languages. De Lisle wasexposed to the persecutions of the Reign of Terror, and another work ofhis, entitled _Eponine_, caused him a second term of imprisonment, fromwhich he was released when the terrible reign of anarchy, lasting eighteenmonths, ended.

The industrious philosopher Denis Diderot wrote _Lettres sur les Aveuglesa l'usage de ceux qui voient_ (1749, in-12). There were "those who saw"and were not blind to its defects, and proceeded to incarcerate Diderot inthe Castle of Vincennes, where he remained six months, and where heperceived that this little correction was necessary to cure him of hisphilosophical folly. He was a very prolific writer, and subsequently withD'Alembert edited the first French Encyclopaedia (1751-1772, 17 vols.).This was supposed to contain statements antagonistic to the Government andto Religion, and its authors and booksellers and their assistants were allsent to the Bastille. _Chambers' Cyclopaedia_ had existed in England someyears before a similar work was attempted in France, and the idea wasfirst started by an Englishman, John Mills. This man was ingeniouslydefrauded of the work, which owed its conception and execution entirely tohim. Perhaps on the whole he might have been congratulated, as he escapedthe Bastille, to which the appropriators of his work were consigned.

An author who dares to combat the popular superstitious beliefs current inhis time often suffers in consequence of his courage, as Balthazar Bekkerdiscovered to his cost. This writer was born in West Friezland in 1634,and died at Amsterdam in 1698. He was a pastor of the Reformed Church ofHolland, and resided during the greater part of his life at Amsterdam,where he produced his earlier work _Recherches sur les Cometes_ (1683), inwhich he combated the popular belief in the malign influence of comets.This work was followed a few years later by his more famous book _DeBetoverde Weereld_, or _The Enchanted World_, [Footnote: _Le Mondeenchante, ou Examen des sentimens touchant les esprits, traduit du flamanden francais_ (Amsterdam, 1694, 4 vols., in-l2). One Benjamin Binet wrote arefutation, entitled _Traite historique des Dieux et des Demons dupaganisme, avec des remarques sur le systeme de Balthazar Bekker_ (Delft,1696, in-l2).] in which he refuted the vulgar notions with regard todemoniacal possession. This work created a great excitement amongst theHollanders, and in two months no less than four thousand copies were sold.But, unfortunately for the author, it aroused the indignation of thetheologians of the Reformed Church, who condemned it, deprived Bekker ofhis office, and expelled him from their communion. Bekker died shortlyafter his sentence had been pronounced. A great variety of opinions havebeen expressed concerning this book. Bekker was a follower of Descartes,and this was sufficient to condemn him in the eyes of many of thetheologians of the day. The Jansenists of Port-Royal and the divines ofthe old National Church of Holland were vehement opponents ofCartesianism; consequently we find M.S. de Vries of Utrecht declaring thatthis fatal book caused more evil in the space of two months than all thepriests could prevent in twenty years. Another writer states that it is anillustrious work, and full of wisdom and learning. When Bekker was deposedfrom his office, his adversaries caused a medal to be struck representingthe devil clad in a priestly robe, riding on an ass, and carrying a trophyin his right hand; which was intended to signify that Bekker had beenovercome in his attempt to disprove demoniacal possession, and that thedevil had conquered in the assembly of divines who pronounced sentence onBekker's book. The author was supposed to resemble Satan in the uglinessof his appearance. Another coin was struck in honour of our author: on oneside is shown the figure of Bekker clad in his priestly robe; and on theother is seen Hercules with his club, with this inscription, _Opusvirtutis veritatisque triumphat_. Bekker also wrote a catechism, entitled_La Nourriture des Parfaits_ (1670), which so offended the authorities ofthe Reformed Church that its use was publicly prohibited by the sound ofbells.

The science of ethnology has also had its victims, and one Isaac de laPeyrere suffered for its sake. His fatal book was one entitled_Praeadamitae, sive exercitatio super versibus xii., xiii., xiv., capitisv., epistolae divi Pauli ad romanos. Quibus inducuntur primi homines anteAdamum conditi_ (1655, in-12), in which he advocated a theory that theearth had been peopled by a race which existed before Adam. The author wasborn at Bordeaux in 1592, and served with the Prince of Conde; but, inspite of his protector, he was imprisoned at Brussels, and his book wasburnt at Paris, in 1655. This work had a salutary effect on theindefatigable translator Abbe de Marolles, who with extraordinary energy,but with little skill, was in the habit of translating the classicalworks, and almost anything that he could lay his hands upon. He publishedno less than seventy volumes, and at last turned his attention to thesacred Scriptures, translating them with notes. In the latter he insertedextracts and reflections from the above-mentioned book by Peyrere, whichcaused a sudden cessation of his labours. By the authority of the Pope theprinting of his works was suddenly stopped, but probably the loss whichthe world incurred was not very great. Peyrere seems to have foretold thefate of his book and his own escape in the following line:--

_Parve, nec invideo, sine me, liber, ibis in ignem_.

Lucilio Vanini, born in 1585, was an Italian philosopher, learned inmedicine, astronomy, theology, and philosophy, who, after the fashion ofthe scholars of the age, roamed from country to country, like the knight-errants of the days of chivalry, seeking for glory and honours, not by thesword, but by learning. This Vanini was a somewhat vain and ridiculousperson. Not content with his Christian name Lucilio, he assumed thegrandiloquent and high-sounding cognomen of Julius Caesar, wishing toattach to himself some of the glory of the illustrious founder of theRoman empire. As the proud Roman declared _Veni, Vidi, Vici_, so would hecarry on the same victorious career, subduing all rival philosophers bythe power of his eloquence and learning. He visited Naples, wanderedthrough France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and England, andfinally stationed himself in France, first at Lyons, and then in a conventat Toulouse. At Lyons he produced his famous and fatal book,_Amphitheatrum aeternae providentiae divino-magicum Christiano-Physicum,nec non Astrologo-Catholicum_ (Lugduni, 1616). It was published with theroyal assent, but afterwards brought upon its author the charge ofAtheism. He concealed the poison most carefully; for apparently hedefended the belief in the Divine Providence and in the immortality of thesoul, but with consummate skill and subtilty he taught that which hepretended to refute, and led his readers to see the force of the argumentsagainst the Faith of which he posed as a champion. By a weak and feebledefence, by foolish arguments and ridiculous reasoning, he secretlyexposed the whole Christian religion to ridicule. But if any doubts wereleft whether this was done designedly or unintentionally, they weredispelled by his second work, _De admirandis naturae reginae deaequemortalium arcanis_ (Paris, 1616), which, published in the form of sixtydialogues, contained many profane statements. In this work also he adoptedhis previous plan of pretending to demolish the arguments against theFaith, while he secretly sought to establish them. He says that he hadwandered through Europe fighting against the Atheists wherever he met withthem. He describes his disputations with them, carefully recording alltheir arguments; he concludes each dialogue by saying that he reduced theAtheists to silence, but with strange modesty he does not inform hisreaders what reasonings he used, and practically leaves the carefullydrawn up atheistical arguments unanswered. The Inquisition did not approveof this subtle method of teaching Atheism, and ordered him to be confinedin prison, and then to be burned alive. This sentence was carried out atToulouse in 1619, in spite of his protestations of innocence, and thearguments which he brought forward before his judges to prove theexistence of God. Some have tried to free Vanini from the charge ofAtheism, but there is abundant evidence of his guilt apart from his books.The tender mercies of the Inquisition were cruel, and could not allow sonotable a victim to escape their vengeance. Whether to burn a man is thesurest way to convert him, is a question open to argument. Vaninidisguised his insidious teaching carefully, but it required a thick veil